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Youngest son of Martin Luther King Jr. dies
Jan
Youngest son of Martin Luther King Jr. dies
Dexter Scott King, Martin Luther King Jr.’s son and King Center chairman, died Monday, the King Center announced.
The youngest son and third child of MLK and Coretta Scott King, Dexter passed away after a long battle with prostate cancer at his home in Malibu, the King Center said.
As with all the challenges in his life, he faced this hurdle with bravery and might,” Leah Weber, his wife, said in a release from the King Center.
It is with deep sadness and heavy hearts that we extend our heartfelt condolences to the family, friends, and colleagues of Dexter Scott King on his passing. The Georgia NAACP joins the nation in mourning the loss of a remarkable individual whose life was dedicated to advancing…
— Gerald A. Griggs (@AttorneyGriggs) January 22, 2024
I’m praying for strength to get through this very difficult time,” Rev. Dr. Bernice A. King said.
Martin Luther King III, Dexter’s older brother, said the sudden shock of his brother’s death was devastating.
“It is hard to have the right words at a moment like this,” he said.
The third child of the Kings, Dexter was born in Atlanta on Jan. 30, 1961. The King Center said Dexter was named after Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, which is where his father gave his first pastorate.
“He was always a person who had his eyes on the horizon,” said Atlanta City Councilmember Michael Julian Bond, who grew up on the same street at the Kings.
Bond described Dexter King as a visionary, someone who always worked to make his father’s legacy and the civil rights movement more relatable.
He grew up in Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church and was a graduate of Frederick Douglas High School. The King Center said Dexter followed in his father’s footsteps and went to Morehouse College.
“The son of the Civil Rights icons was the family member delegated to take on the mantel of continuing the precedent his father set by legally protecting his work,” the King Center said in a release.
Family members said he died after a battle with prostate cancer.
“He transitioned peacefully in his sleep at home with me in Malibu,” his wife. Leah Weber King, said in a statement.
Dexter King was an activist and served as chairman of the King Center and the president of the King Estate.
Where his father served as a pastor for the first time.
King attended Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia like his father.
The third of the Kings’ four children, Dexter had an “uncanny resemblance” to his father. Whom he played in the 2002 movie The Rosa Parks Story, the King Center in Atlanta said.
“He devoted his life to the continued perpetuation of his father’s legacy,” the Center said.
